CW 272: High Frequency Trading with Scott Patterson Wall Street Journal Reporter and Author of ‘The Quants & Dark Pools’

Jason Hartman is joined by author, Scott Patterson to discuss high frequency trading, of which roughly 70 percent is driven by computers. Scott says the firms using artificial intelligence for high-speed trading make it nearly impossible for the little guy to compete in the markets.

According to his book, Dark Pools, these robot systems trade in milliseconds. High frequency firms flood the market with buy and sell orders, effectively clogging up the system and posing a threat to other firms.

While this electronic exchange made the system more effective, one has to wonder if this trading style hasn’t become detrimental to the markets overall when trading successfully is defined by milliseconds. Scott coined the term “A.I. Bandits” to describe electronic high frequency trading. Scott also discusses the history of quant strategies based on his book, The Quants, a mathematical scientific approach to outsmarting Wall Street, which led to the recent financial crash. He calls the quant system “a classic tale of hubris.”

Scott Patterson is author of The Quants and his new release, Dark Pools, and is currently a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, where he covers financial regulation from Washington, D.C. He has also written for the New York Times, Rolling Stone and Mother Earth News. He has a Masters of Arts degree from James Madison University. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.